Michael Jackson's mom to pay promoter $1,000,000

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's 83-year-old mother Katherine has agreed to pay over $800,000 to tour promoters AEG Live for costs incurred to defend a failed lawsuit she brought, lawyers said Monday.

Attorneys for AEG Live, which organized the pop icon's doomed 2009 comeback tour, had sought more than US$1.2 million (S$1.51 million) for expenses after winning a five-month trial but haggled out a lesser amount with Jackson's legal team.

The deal has still to be approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos, who oversaw the civil trial last year.

AEG Live attorney Marvin Putnam said the promoter should be reimbursed for all the costs to which it was entitled under law, and about half of those the judge has the discretion to approve or deny.

The Jackson matriarch sued AEG Live in 2010 claiming they negligently hired and supervised Conrad Murray, the doctor subsequently convicted of involuntary manslaughter over the "Thriller" singer's death on June 25, 2009.

Jackson died from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol, given by Murray at the star's rented mansion in Los Angeles, where he was rehearsing for the "This is It" shows at London's O2 Arena.

In the civil trial, Jackson alleged that AEG Live missed a series of red flags about the star's failing health in the run-up to his death.

The Jacksons wanted AEG Live to pay $85 million to each of the star's three children for emotional loss, and an unspecified amount for economic losses, estimated at up to $1.6 billion.

But AEG's lawyers called the figures ridiculous, and last October a jury found that, although AEG Live hired Murray, he was not unfit or incompetent for the job he was hired to do, a key requirement for the Jackson lawsuit to have succeeded.